


Any Other Day

by JackHarknessLover



Category: Torchwood
Genre: F/M, Gwen Bashing, Light Angst, not gwack friendly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-05
Updated: 2017-03-05
Packaged: 2018-09-28 13:05:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10102127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JackHarknessLover/pseuds/JackHarknessLover
Summary: Gwen knew that if she declared her love for Jack that it would break Rhys’s heart and she didn’t want to hurt him because deep inside she still did love him though it was sometimes hard for her to say. Gwen felt that it would be better in the long run to confess all, she just had to accept the repercussions.That was her plan for today. Get into work early, find Jack and tell him she loved him, hopefully he would feel the same way, and if not, well she didn’t really want to think about ifs and maybes.





	

Rhys Williams woke up, got out of bed, made his way to the kitchen where he kissed his girlfriend good morning and made himself a bowl of cereal, just like any other day. He sat down at the table opposite her and began to eat, noticing while he did that Gwen was rather hurriedly eating out of her own bowl of cereal. Rhys didn’t blame her, after the argument they had had last night he wasn’t sure he even wanted to be in the same room as himself for long.

They had been having more and more arguments recently and it wasn’t like them to argue. It had been ever since she had gotten this new job of hers, the one she wasn’t allowed to talk to him about. Sometimes they would argue about stupid stuff, about things that didn’t mean anything in the long run but other times it was about how she never got off work and how he never seemed to see her because she was so damn busy all the time.

Rhys knew and understood that her work was important to her but surely she must care about him too? The sad thing was, Rhys thought as he eat a spoonful of cereal was that even when she was there and they were talking he could see a distant look in her eye almost like she would rather be somewhere else. Like she would rather be anywhere else than with boring, old, Rhys Williams the boyfriend she supposedly loved.

This was what it all came down too really, all of the arguments, did she still love him? Sure Gwen had told him the three little words over and over again when lying naked next to each other in bed, but words could just be words they didn’t necessarily have to have meaning in them. He didn’t need spoken words, Rhys needed prove that she loved him and he knew exactly where to find that prove.

His plan was simple. As soon as Gwen left for work he would follow her in his own car. Follow her through into the building and once and for all find out what it was that she did. 

Rhys emptied his bowl as fast as possible and finished just as his girlfriend got up and but her own bowl in the sink ready to be cleaned later on. “Off to work.” She said trying to make it sound cheerful and she gave Rhys a quick kiss on the cheek.

“Do you know when you’ll be back?” He asked her not really expecting a proper answer.

“I’m not sure, probably not until late, don’t bother making me dinner.” Just as he had expected, he wasn’t exactly sure why he had asked in the first place. 

“Sure” he said and then as an afterthought he added “I love you”. There was no reply as he heard the sound of the door banging to a close and a car engine being switched on outside. 

Rhys got up off his seat and ran as fast as he could to his own car just in time to see Gwen’s turn the first corner on the street. 

 

Gwen Cooper turned on the ignition in her car, leaning back in her seat and started to drive into the centre of Cardiff towards the Hub. Last night she had been laying in bed eyes wide open and unable to sleep.

She had found herself going over things in her mind, things that otherwise would have stayed forgotten about if it weren’t for the fact that they kept her up at night. It was mostly about her job, Torchwood. Sometimes the job was beautiful, getting to see alien life and getting to experience the way the world worked from such a different point of view. There were other things that she experienced at Torchwood that made it a nightmare and Gwen could find herself laying in bed with visions of violence and blood, terror and death.

Tonight though neither of those thoughts were what was keeping her awake.Tonight the thoughts that swam around her brain were about a certain Captain Jack Harkness. Ever since she had joined Torchwood and had first meet the extravagant Jack Harkness she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about him. At first it had only been platonically but as she had grown more confident and her place in the team had been established she had decided that actually she felt something a little more. It might have started out as a simple crush but now it was full on love. 

Even though she hated to admit it she did feel guilty about her feelings towards this man that she barely new. She felt guilty because of Rhys, it was unfair for him to have to put up with her feelings for another man especially when those feelings presided over her feelings for Rhys. 

Gwen knew that if she declared her love for Jack that it would break Rhys’s heart and she didn’t want to hurt him because deep inside she still did love him though it was sometimes hard for her to say. Gwen felt that it would be better in the long run to confess all, she just had to accept the repercussions. 

That was her plan for today. Get into work early, find Jack and tell him she loved him, hopefully he would feel the same way, and if not, well she didn’t really want to think about ifs and maybes.

Gwen pulled the car over the docks where she went into the Torchwood visitor centre and all but ran through the round metal door entering into the Hub. 

 

Jack sat at Ianto’s terminal inside the heart of Torchwood watching the screen on the computer with a quizzical expression etched on his face. The CCTV camera positioned outside the hub showed Gwen walking into work as if it was any other day, there was nothing unusual about that, he thought as he watched her go through the beaded tourist entrance. What he hadn’t expected however was a man to follow her. This man was someone he recognized but he was having a hard time placing him. Jack swore he had seen him before and the man obviously knew Gwen. This was a problem, Jack couldn’t have just anyone finding out about Torchwood, it was after all supposed to be a secret. 

He leaned back on the chair and called “Ianto, there’s something I think you should see.” The quiet soft sound of Ianto Jones found it’s way to Jack’s ear and he turned around to see Ianto making his way over to him.

“What is it Sir?” Ianto asked placing a hand on the back of Jack’s chair.

“Look” Jack replied pointing at the computer screen. Jack had switched the screen so that instead of showing the outside of the hub it now showed the corridor and the round metal door as it opened letting Gwen Cooper through while swiftly behind her Rhys Williams was close at her heel. 

“Well that is interesting” Ianto said looking at Jack. 

“It really is, we should start work.” Getting up Jack went to his office and sat down at his desk ready to begin another long day of alien hunting.

 

Gwen Cooper tried to act natural as she walked into the hub as all the while crazy thoughts about Jack kept coming into her mind. This was it. This was it. She was going to do it and there was no going back. She placed her things by her workstation and rapped on the door of Jack’s office. 

Gwen took a deep breath preparing herself for the worst. She could see that Jack was sat at his desk a pen in hand. He was concentrating hard scribbling things quickly down on paper. He looked up suddenly noticing her for the first time. Finally it’s about time, she thought, she had been standing here for what seemed like forever. “Come in” Jack said and he put the pen down studying her. 

She stepped into the office space and glanced around trying to do anything that could delay the inevitable. She wanted to tell him, my god she did but she couldn’t also help but be nervous. She wanted him to say that he loved her as much as she loved him, she wanted to kiss him, to know what those lips would feel like being pressed so close to her own, but what if he didn’t think in the same way? 

“Hello Gwen, what do you need?” Jack asked her. The question came upon Gwen so unannounced that it took her a while to find her bearings.

“Um actually i don’t need anything, I want to tell you something.” This made Jack take notice and he straightened up his back, his elbows propped up on his desk. 

“Go on” he said.

Gwen coughed clearing her voice. “Well I actually want to talk about a personal matter.” she said diving in at the deep end. 

 

Rhys just about managed to squeeze himself through the metal door in time as he followed his girlfriend into the hub stopping only once to take in the interior design of the place. If he had had more time he would have liked to look at the smaller details but as it was he found there was no need to, he had to keep at Gwen’s heels. 

He hid behind the waterfall that somehow existed in the middle of the building watching Gwen as she laid her things by her workstation and knocked on the door of a smaller room to the side of it. 

Rhys looked around checking to see if the coast was clear and when it was he went in the same direction and leaned into the wall hoping that neither Gwen nor the man inside saw him. 

“Well I actually want to talk about a personal matter” Rhys heard Gwen say to the man who Rhys had come to presume was her boss. He did not like how handsome he was and he certainly didn’t like the way his girlfriend was looking at him, filled with lust and longing. No wonder she liked it better here than she did at home, Rhys thought bitterly. 

“Okay” the man said waiting patiently for Gwen to compose what she was about to say.

“I know that we’ve not known each other for very long and i know it’s not been long since i’ve started working here either.” she said. Rhys noticed the slight tremor in her voice, what was she up to now, he wondered. 

“But ever since I met you Jack there’s been something about you that I just can’t stop thinking about and I’ve finally managed to put a finger to what it is.”

Rhys stared at the wall in front of him, he couldn’t believe what he was hearing surely what he thought was happening wasn’t actually going to happen. He wanted to go in there and put a stop to this nonsense right there and then but before he could he felt a firm hand grab his shoulder and he turned around. 

A tall slim man wearing an impeccable suit stood there “Ianto Jones” the man said holding out his hand, Rhys took it. “Rhys Williams”

“You must be Gwen’s boyfriend I take it” the young man said. Rhys could only nod. “If I were you I wouldn’t” Ianto said trying to pull Rhys away.

“Wouldn’t do what?” Rhys retorted back.

“You want to go in there screaming the place down and you probably also want to punch the hell out of Jack. I wouldn’t do that, though don’t worry we all want to punch him sometimes, it’s just the way Jack is.”

The way he said it, it was if this Ianto person had read Rhys’s mind and it made him very uncomfortable. “Listen” Ianto added. “It’s not going to turn out how you think”

Rhys listened. “I bloody love you Jack Harkness.” he heard his girlfriend tell the man that he barely knew.

Rhys wriggled out of Ianto’s firm grip and ‘sprinted into the small office space, the doors smashing wide open as he did. Gwen turned so fiercely her hair got caught up in her face, but damn it she still managed to look hot even with a temper, Rhys thought to himself. 

“Rhys!” Gwen screamed “What on earth are you doing here?”

“What Am I?...” Rhys’s voice trailed off “What do you think you're saying! You're in love with this guy? What about me?”

Gwen looked from one man to the other, not knowing what to do. She had not expected this. She had been stupid, so so stupid, to think that this would go smoothly. “I, I, I’m not sure” she stammered pathetically.

A long and extended sigh came from Jack’s mouth “Look” he said “Just let me say one thing before this goes any further. I thought we would get to this sooner or later, I just never expected it today. Gwen you're a lovely girl and I like you, hell sometimes I even think I do love you but it’s only platonic you realise that right? You know as well as I do that the only person in this building I have romantic feelings for is Ianto.” 

“Well good that settles it.” Rhys said, taking Gwen’s hand firmly in his “Let’s go home and be normal for once”

“There really is nothing here for you Gwen except friendship and work, nothing more. Go home with your boyfriend.” Jack said, standing up and motioning her to leave the room “And take the day off you're obviously tired, get some rest. I expect you back here this time tomorrow.” 

Gwen opened her mouth to protest and then stopped, thinking better off it. The two men looked at her as if she had gone mad, and maybe she had but she was okay with that and they should be too. 

Gwen and Rhys stepped out the hub and onto the streets of Cardiff. Two things Gwen knew where certain, she loved Jack no matter how he felt - though her feelings towards Rhys where still fuzzy to say the least - she also knew that she was better off without either man even if just for a little while, she did after all have to make her own way in the world.

Gwen made the decision to split with Rhys in the morning before work, it would be better for all of them and then she would talk to Jack later. Both parties involved in this mess had woken up this morning thinking that the day would be just like any other day but it had if truth be told one of the worst days of Gwen Coopers long and wonderful life.


End file.
